The Mech Touch novel Chapter 3515

Chapter 3515: Naval Ambitions

In the later weeks of the expeditionary fleet's stay in the Vulit Central Star Node, the Larkinsons mainly became preoccupied with two different priorities.

The first priority was the abrupt expansion of the Larkinson fleet.

From the moment it entered the Red Ocean, the Larkinsons had just gotten rid of all of their sub-capital ships. That downsized their previously abundant ship roster down to just 9 capital ships!

This was completely insufficient for the clan to safely roam the Red Ocean. The Larkinsons were desperate to expand their mech capacity and offload all of the packed mechs that were sitting uselessly inside vessels that didn't have space to accommodate them properly!

The frequent tournaments held in Chance Bay were a godsent to the clansmen. Though the clan had to expose way more details and trump cards to the public than it wished, those secrets were useless if the Larkinson fleet wasn't able to field a lot of mechs into battle!

If Ves had to choose between keeping his secrets or fielding more mechs, then his choice was pretty clear!

The trickle of carriers entering into service provided a massive amount of relief to the Larkinson Army. It was quite painful for the mech legions to retire all of their combat carriers and much of their mechs.

Now that a lot of mech pilots finally regained the opportunity to pilot actual mechs, much of the pressure among the soldiers had been relieved.

Though there were still a lot of mech pilots that were also waiting to get back in the saddle, the clan could only do so much.

Not a lot of mech designers and mech pilots among the Larkinsons were good enough to rank high in the tournaments. People like Ves were the exception rather than the rule in the clan.

Still, everyone was happy with the amount of progress they had made in the past month. An opportunity to obtain so many ships without paying a huge amount of money was extremely rare.

"It's a pity we can't stay any longer." Ves sighed as he looked out across the hotel window.

Chance Bay was truly a place where the powerful, capable and lucky got their chances. The Larkinson Clan's position in the Red Ocean used to be a lot worse before it started to win a steady amount of carrier vessels.

The Larkinson Clan managed to obtain so much additional mech capacity that it actually suffered a shortage of mechs to fill up all of those empty berths!

Part of the reason for that was because all of the mechs got lost due to attrition. Big events such as the Larkinson Battalion's participation in the G-Aena League had effectively wiped out hundreds of living mechs alone!

Still, lacking enough mechs was a much more manageable problem than lacking enough carrier ships. It was a lot easier for the Larkinson Clan to make up for the shortfall of mechs than to acquire additional starships going forward!

Ves met up with Chief Shipwright Vivian Tsai and Fleet Coordinator Ophelia Kronon in order to discuss the new additions to the Larkinson fleet.

"How many ships have we gained so far?" He asked.

"At this moment, we have gained possession of 36 combat carriers and 1 fleet carrier." Vivian replied.

"What is your evaluation of the new combat carriers?"

"They are quite good." Vivian smiled. "The combat carriers all come in several different ship classes, each of which differ in configuration, performance and appearance. They all have a standard mech capacity of 60 mechs, so you don't have to worry about that. Each of them are brand-new and built in shipyards across the region. The tech and materials used in their construction roughly correspond to the level of the galactic heartland. They're not top-of-the-line, but they are considerably better than the Hexer combat carriers that we used to possess."

That was good news to Ves. Heartland-level starships were currently the mainstream in the Red Ocean, so the Larkinsons did not have to worry about getting outclassed when fighting against other second-class opponents.

The people of the Red Ocean had become accustomed to grading the overall tech and degree of sophistication of any technological asset.

For example, the Spirit of Bentheim was considered a rim-level factory ship. There were a lot of other factory ships in the Red Ocean that possessed considerably better tech and were also made out of stronger alloys.

Though Ves felt a bit envious of all of the pioneers who owned superior factory ships, that didn't mean he was ready to get rid of the Spirit of Bentheim.

There was nothing wrong with his flagship's performance. The production halls were more than capable of producing large amounts of mechs as long as they were fed with sufficient raw materials. They were just a bit slower at it than their equivalents aboard other factory ships.

Besides, it shouldn't be too difficult to upgrade the production lines in the future.

More thorough upgrades required the cooperation of a shipyard, though, and that was a lot more difficult to secure.

"What of the new fleet carrier that we've acquired from the Wild Fighter Association?" Ves asked.

"Ah. She's certainly an impressive fleet carrier." Vivian responded with a lot more enthusiasm than before. "With a length of 2.9 kilometers, she is only marginally smaller than the Gorgoneion. Her specs are relatively balanced and she does not possess any glaring weaknesses. One of the advantages that she brings to our fleet is her excellent support facilities. As a heartland-level fleet carrier, she possesses much more modern repair and servicing facilities."

"Does it come with any superfabs?"

"Ah, unfortunately not. We have found signs that the ship used to carry one in her main workshop, but her former owners evidently removed it before handing the vessel over to our clan."

"Figures."

To be fair, superfabs were too valuable to be given away as freebies. The Larkinsons should already be glad that the Wild Fighters didn't strip the fleet carrier of her other valuable systems.

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